﻿Infrastructure Management and Performance (IMaP)

Who
is involved
The scoping of the research is being lead by Paul Sayers and Prof Jim Hall
(University of Oxford) and is being supported by Dr Andy Moores and Owen
Tarrant of the Environment Agency. EPSRC and NERC are supportive of the submission.

Outline vision for iMAPiMaP aims to
provide a significant programme of research (over 5 years) providing a new,
richer, understanding of asset performance and how to manage asset systems
efficiently and effectively.

The concept is
that iMAP will be primarily funded through the research councils (subject to
peer review) but shaped jointly by practitioners and researchers and co-funded
by the joint programme (data, in-kind and targeted funds).

Timeline?Uniquely, the
Joint R&D programme (link) is providing funds to scope the programme of
work, to ensure that it adequately represents the needs of users, is based on
the latest scientific thinking and provides outputs which demonstrate research
excellence and real world impact.
The iMAP submission will be developed over the coming months – including Co-I’s, industry partners and topics. Submission of the
final proposal will be around December 14, with funding anticipated to commence during 2015

Supporting RationaleIn many places (in the UK
and overseas) flood risk management continues to rely upon a broad range flood
defence assets to appropriately manage the probability of flooding. The sunk
investment and on-going expenditure on both existing and potential future assets
is significant (in the order of 70% of the overall Flood and Coastal Risk
Management budget for England and Wales).
Targeting this investment to best effect (maximising a wide range of
benefits for multiple stakeholders) is not straightforward. Without improving our underlying science,
actions may be poorly targeted; improving assets that do not need to be
improved and leaving those that do.
Without continuing to advance our science understanding and our ability
to apply this understanding to national policy through to local individual
asset management choices investments may be wasted and some risks unnecessarily
left unmanaged.

﻿ Whilst significant steps have been taken towards
performance-based asset management(through initiatives such as FRMRC and the on-going activities under the
joint programme), the necessary underpinning science to better plan, design and
manage flood defences remains limited.The concept of asset systems has been embraced by the Agency but the
ability to analyse the behaviour of all but the simplest of systems across
multiple spatial and temporal scales remains out of reach.The temporal sequencing of storm events and
deterioration, the spatial correlation in loading and asset properties (from
crest levels to underlying geology) and the increasing need to proactively plan
for future adaption, multifunctionality and seek innovative funding mechanisms
are all recognised challenges but practitioners have limited scientific support
to draw upon.Equally, planning
(appraisal), design and management continue, from an analysis perspective, to
be considered separately and often with value-added understanding being lost
between them.

The need for more
fundamental science was recently reinforced within the LWEC Flood Research Strategy,
CoRDDi and the SAM TAG 5-year plan.Each
highlight the need for scientific innovations (made in collaboration with
practitioners)if, in the longer term
asset, management is to continue to become more efficient and deliver
multi-functional performance and co-benefits.

Empirical evidence for the
need to support continued research through iMaP also exists.For example, in the 2007 and 2012 storms
floods defence assets performed well and better that existing analysis would
suggest. This reinforces the belief that greater efficiency could be achieved
if we knew more, and were confident in that knowledge.﻿
The reality of funding is
that asset managers are increasingly asked to do more with less; deliver multiple
benefits with single actions and appropriately plan for future adaptation.IMaP will supporting asset managers and
strategist (at national and regional scales) in meeting these challenges,
better justify expenditure and deliver more innovative, more efficient and
better targeted actions.﻿﻿